Geologic, botanical and other scientific evidence shows the Earth has had regular cycles of ice ages with warm periods in-between, long before human civilization moved from hunting and gathering to agriculture, industrialization and urbanization.

Observations started by Darwin led to biological and generic evidence that are related to, that is, we have ancestors in common with, other creatures on this Earth — not “evolved from monkeys” — and that all life forms from the lowest to the highest adapt to their environments.

And this week we had reports that neutrinos were observed moving faster than light. Who knows if the observations will hold up and where this will lead.

All these ideas, and many more, first arose in defiance of conventional wisdom at the time, and each stands or falls on its own merit based on hard, repeatable facts, not consensus or commonly accepted opinions.

3. Scientists expect people to put their brains to their best possible use, to have the intellectual and moral courage to argue on the basis of objective facts and facts alone. Of course scientists are also naîve enough to expect that this intellectual attitude would be, should be applied in other areas of human endeavor.

On the other hand,

* In the practice of law, civil or criminal, truth and justice don’t matter, just who wins and loses.

* Lawyers and judges feel free to pretend that the existence of facts and evidence can be denied simply because of an error in bureaucratic procedure. Or that facts are not facts unless some expert so testifies under oath. (The Sun does not rise in the east unless Einstein swears to it…)

* In business, you are out to win, but you know it’s a good deal when everybody is happy with it. In other words, Win-Win. Why? Because a happy customer is a REPEAT customer. They don’t come back if the deal is a Win-Lose. A wheeler-dealer will not make many deals if his reputation for being a shark gets around.

* Politicians expect to find virtue in compromise; if everybody hates it — Lose-Lose — then it must be a good deal.

* Politicians, like lawyers, see everything, especially economics, as a zero-sum game, as a Win-Lose. One man is rich because others are poor. They can’t imagine an economy that’s a Win-Win, where everybody is getting richer, everybody’s standard of living is rising, because of their imagination, industriousness, drive and perseverance.

* Politicians delude themselves, and try to delude the people, that they can simply “declare victory and move on,” without dire consequences. Or they cynically ignore the consequences so they’ll have an excuse to ride in again and again on their great white horse.

* And politicians expect people to be so stupid that they’ll fall for all their BS and follow them like sheep.

* And, so far, the majority of people DO follow them no matter what facts, logic and common sense indicate!